MCLC: Chen Xitong on Tiananmen

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: kirk (denton.2 at osu.edu)
Subject: Chen Xitong on Tiananmen
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Source: The Guardian (5/29/12):
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/may/29/tiananmen-square-deaths-beijing
-mayor

Tiananmen crackdown was a tragedy, says former Beijing mayorChinese
hardliner Chen Xitong says deaths of 1989 pro-democracy protesters were
avoidable
By Tania Branigan in Beijing

The former Beijing mayor attacked for his role in the bloody crackdown on
the Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests has described it as "a
regrettable tragedy that could have been avoided", according to a new book.

Hundreds, possibly thousands, died when the Chinese army suppressed
demonstrations in the capital on 3 and 4 June 1989. Chen Xitong's comments
are particularly striking because he has long been seen as a hardliner who
advocated bringing in the military and because of reports that some
officials want the official government verdict on the events to be revised.

According to the scholar Yao Jianfu, who says he interviewed the
81-year-old repeatedly for the new book Conversations with Chen Xitong,
the former mayor said that while he wanted a swift end to the instability,
"nobody should have died if it was handled properly. Several hundred
people died on that day. As the mayor, I felt sorry. I hoped we could have
solved the case peacefully."

Chen later became party secretary of the capital, but was ousted and then
jailed in a major corruption scandal in the 1990s. He was released on
medical parole in 2004.

"He was a hardliner … but he is the first one to come out saying he
regretted that people died and that it should have been peaceful. That's
significant," said Bao Pu, the book's publisher.

Bao's father was the most senior official jailed for his sympathy for the
students. "Even Chen Xitong has a sense that people in general don't
accept the government's conclusion."

Chen's remarks appear to have been prompted by the unpublished diary of
the former premier Li Peng, which described him as "the chief commander"
of the Beijing Martial Law Command Centre.

According to the extracts obtained by the South China Morning Post, and
confirmed by Bao, Chen said he knew little about the political discussions
and decisions.

"I know nothing of this role I allegedly played. I don't know what his
[Li's] purpose is [for claiming that]," he said. He added: "I believe that
one day the party will declassify all the documents and history will give
a fairer judgment on Deng Xiaoping, Li Peng and Zhao Ziyang [the general
secretary, who was purged due to his sympathy for the students].

"As our country is now getting stronger, so we should have a more
democratic system. Wen Jiabao has said on many occasions that [we need]
political reforms … We need to do this step by step … Unfair and unjust
things will be readdressed one day."
Prof Andrew Nathan, an expert on Chinese politics at Columbia University
and editor of The Tiananmen Papers, said Chen's comments were fascinating.

"I have noticed a rising expectation among my Chinese acquaintances that
6.4 [as the crackdown is known in China] will be reconsidered. But I
remain pessimistic for the near term," he said.

"In the long run I feel sure the verdict will be reversed because the
issue simply refuses to go away." Nathan said that not only would
influential elders – such as Li Peng and the former president Jiang Zemin
– be damaged by a reversal of the verdict, but it would undermine the
regime's basic claim to legitimacy.

"[That] continues to rest on the same basis that it did in 1989 – that the
'verdict of history' decided that the CCP [Chinese Communist party] shall
rule China, and any challenge to that verdict must be repressed by the use
of force," Nathan said.